


learning the ropes

by ratthirst



Category: The Bold Type
Genre: Bondage, F/F, Lesbian Sex, Open Relationships, Polyamory, Rope Bondage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 22:34:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15694704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratthirst/pseuds/ratthirst
Summary: Kat's still getting used to this whole open relationship thing. But one thing's for sure, she's learning more about what she wants and trying to figure out how to articulate these desires to Adena.





	learning the ropes

Kat was finding the hardest part of being in an open relationship was coming home to Adena. Not the coming home itself, Kat was always thrilled to be back in the arms of her love. But she always wondered if she was kissing differently, bringing things she had learned into bed with Adena in ways that made her uncomfortable. Kat had learned things about what she liked, had uncovered new energy, new desires in the beds of these flings, and Adena made it clear she didn’t want to know. She had wanted Kat to have freedom to explore, lean into curiosities, try new things, but didn’t want to hear about her adventures. This made sense, at first. Kat was thrilled and made nervous by the prospect of more space to understand her own sapphic energy. But Kat could feel the silence growing into a cavern. She wanted to share her whole self with Adena, especially after what she learned after this last encounter with…. Bianca? That was her name, right?

Kat spent the day at work overthinking how to tell Adena about her adventures, how to ask for the new things she was learning she wanted. She searched the Scarlett archives to see what others had written about being in an open relationship. The search results were vaguely disappointing with most mentions embedded in lists like “10 ways to spice up your relationship” or “how to get the most out of your study abroad.” Kat’s peers at Scarlett seemed to love a passing mention of opening up a relationship without getting into the messiness of what that actually looked like in practice.

Broadening her search to the world wide web, Kat was bombarded with words like “polyamory” and “relationship anarchy” and “ethical non-monogamy” and “primary partner” and “unicorn”. She got quickly overwhelmed trying to figure out the difference between polyamory and non-monogamy—was there even one? Kat was pretty sure Adena was her “primary partner” but they had never used that word before. Did that make them bad lesbians? Where were the simple rules for all this queer relationship mumbo jumbo? 

Getting flustered, Kat did what she always did: took to social media. Having drafted the perfect Twitter poll, Kat took a deep breath and then realized she just needed to get over herself and talk to her precious, veteran, lesbian love Adena. But the question was how? Kat realized she just wanted to share what she was learning about herself. She didn’t need to get into the details of each hookup; that seemed cruel to Adena and just downright awkward. 

Then it hit her. Kat realized what better way to share with Adena than show and tell? Kat let her mind linger for a moment on how Adena would look tied up the way Bianca(?) had showed her, the way rope would press against Adena’s perfect collarbone, how fun it would be to make Adena squirm. Kat wondered if she would be able to get Adena to beg. The idea of “please” slipping past Adena’s lips made Kat quiver in a way that felt inappropriate for work, no matter how sex-positive Scarlett might be. 

She made a mental list of all the things she would need, closed her tabs with research on open relationships and replaced them with a search for the closest sex shop. She found one that sounded familiar—where had she heard the name Babeland before? did they sponsor that podcast or something? When she clicked on the link, Kat knew she had made the right choice. This place screamed feminist! lesbian! sex positive! She made a mental note that they even offered workshops. Kat quickly typed “rope” into the search box. It looked like they only sold one kind, but it looked different from the rope she had tied Bianca up with. Were there different kinds of rope? Opening a new tab, Kat searched “rope for bondage” clicked on the first link and started hyperventilating. There was so much information about different kinds of rope and different knots—some were good for suspension play, some better for restricting movement. Kat’s head was spinning and she needed to scream.

Frantically glancing around the office she made eyes with Sutton and Jane and jerked her head towards the fashion closet. They dutifully got up from their seats and headed in that direction. As soon as the door closed behind them, Kat burst.

“Adena doesn’t want to know about my other hookups but I’m learning so much about what I want and I need to tell her. I think I’m a domme or a top. I’m not quite sure of the difference between the two. But I want to tie her up and I don’t know how to ask her. Plus did you know how many different kinds of rope there are? And I’m worried she’s going to feel weird about me tying her up. She’s going to know I learned it somewhere else. Do you think she’s been tied up before? God I bet she looked hot. What if I’m bad at it compared to whoever tied her up before?”

Before Kat could keep anxiously chattering, Jane placed her hands on either of Kat’s shoulders.

“Take a deep breath,” Jane instructed.

Kat did as she was told and glanced up in time to catch Sutton and Jane mouthing “wow” at each other, their eyes lit up, processing everything she had just shared with them.

Sutton and Jane managed to talk Kat down from her anxious spiraling. Leaving the closet, Sutton and Jane returned to their desks while Kat headed out to Babeland with promises of sending practice selfies to the groupchat for affirmation. 

After one of the most pleasant customer service experiences ever, Kat caught a Lyft home and started googling different knots and ties on her phone. Glancing at the time, she worried she wouldn’t get home with enough time to practice before Adena was there. She shot off a quick text trying to slyly find out when her love would be back from the studio and was relieved when Adena said she’d probably be two more hours. Perfect.

Kat found the perfect set of knots to use on Adena and read through the instructions twice before the Lyft pulled up to her apartment. When she got inside, Kat stripped down to her thong and bra, catching a quick glance of her ass in the mirror she was reminded of how hot she was and how she could always fall back on that even if this whole tying-Adena-up thing went poorly. 

Pulling the rope out of her bag, Kat had a flashback to the first time she held rope in her hands with Bianca. She thought about how she bumbled around tying up this unfamiliar body but how the end result had been so worth the awkwardness of being talked through it by some stranger she’d known for all of 40 minutes. Her mind raced to what it would be like to tie up Adena, her body feeling so familiar pressed up against hers, knowing exactly how her body would respond being touched in this way or that. 

It was time to get down to practicing. Kat sat on her bed with instructions on her phone next to her, the rope ready in her hands. At first she unfurled the full length of rope, the tails of rope stretching from the edge of her bed to the kitchen. Then she remembered she needed to find the bite of the rope, and scrambled to fold the rope in half, recoil it, and begin wrapping and tying it around her own torso. After some frustrated grunting, she got it tied just right and snapped a selfie to send to Jane and Sutton. Their reply of heart and fire emojis fueled Kat’s confidence.

She untied and retied herself twice more, timing herself the second time just for fun. Her phone buzzed with a text from Adena saying she was on her way back from the studio, and Kat quickly untied herself and coiled the rope neatly. She didn’t bother to get dressed, instead deciding to sit at their tiny kitchen table, flipping through a magazine, waiting for Adena to get home. 

Kat’s heart raced when she heard Adena’s keys in the door, and she looked up and caught Adena’s eyes in time to see them light up at the sight of an underdressed Kat. 

“Come here,” Kat instructed, trying to keep her lips pursed in a cunning grin.

Adena set her keys and bag on the counter and obediently walked over to Kat. Kat stood up and kissed Adena’s neck. She traced her tongue from the collar of Adena’s shirt up to her ear and whispered, “I want to show you what I’ve been learning. Is that ok?”

Adena made a low humming noise and nodded. Kat gently but swiftly undressed Adena, kissing her more aggressively than usual. Adena’s hands searched for the curve of Kat’s lower back, but Kat shook her off. Grabbing her wrists, she moved Adena’s hands off of her and firmly guided her to sit on the edge of their bed. Adena kissed Kat’s torso, and once again tried to hold onto Kat and pull her close, but Kat pulled away. 

“Sit still,” she instructed, looking down at Adena sternly. Adena’s eyes flashed with excitement and she listened. Kat retrieved her rope and began wrapping it around Adena’s torso just as she’d practiced, stretching it across her collarbone, past her birthmark, over the scar she got from swimming too close to a coral reef three years ago. Binding this familiar body filled Kat with a feeling of such power and intimacy. Adena let small gasps out of her mouth as the rope dragged across her nipple, wrapped taught around her hips. 

When she was finished, Kat looked Adena in the eyes. “Are you good?” she asked. Adena eagerly nodded and twisted, clearly yearning for Kat to be closer. Kat picked up on this and reveled in being able to see Adena’s motion so limited, to see her brimming over with desire and not able to do anything about it.

“Tell me what you want,” Kat demanded.

Adena’s breath caught and she struggled to push “touch me” past her lips. Kat knew she could’ve made Adena say it again, could’ve gotten her to really beg, but her patience was wearing out.

She slipped her fingers between Adena’s thighs and felt how wet she was. Kat tried to remember if she’d ever felt Adena this wet before, but this thought quickly left her mind when she heard Adena’s gentle moans from below her. There was a much more pressing matter at hand. Kat focused her energy on coaxing more sweet crooning out of Adena’s mouth, letting her questions about open relationships and anxiety about getting the knots right and research about whether or not this was the right kind of rope fade into the distance, allowing herself to be here, now with this precious love who was all hers.


End file.
